Chew This Over: Munchable Ice Sells Like Hot Cakes

Ice isn’t just for chilling drinks anymore, or for packing fish and
treating sprains. It’s a hot snack. Some Sonic Drive-In franchises sell
it in cups and in bags to go. Ice-machine makers are competing to make
the best chewable ice, with names like Chewblet, Nugget Ice and Pearl
Ice. One manufacturer calls the ice-loving South the “Chew Belt.”

The 24-year-old director of research for a Web site
chews the ice in the car on his way to work in Atlanta. He downs two or
three more cups before lunch. He orders ice from drive-thru windows and
dips into the office ice machine. Sometimes, his tongue gets so numb he
can barely talk to clients.

Still, he munches on. “It’s something that you want to do and you think about doing on a constant basis,” he says.